Indie Zeno Clash devs take sales pitch to the pirates

When an independent game developer found its latest game on the torrent sites …

You can't stop piracy, but you may be able to convince the pirates to pay for your game. When indie game developer ACE Team found its Zeno Clash in the expected places online, it decided to take a deep breath and engage the people downloading the game. The response? In many cases, second thoughts about stealing the title.

"Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a sequel) is to have good sales," Carlos Bordeu wrote in the comments for the torrent. "I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are working on one which will be available soon.

"We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don’t intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it." That was the entirety of the message, and Ars contacted Bordeu to see how that simple plea worked out for them.

"We were surprised about how positive [the reaction] was," Bordeu told Ars. "We've received several mails and posts in our own forums of people who pirated the game that decided to buy it because of the message. I don't know if it is a significant percent, or whether this is good strategy as a whole... but it has sparked some very positive reactions in the community."

This wasn't a studied or planned response to the piracy; the team simply sat down and tried to figure out what they could do. It seems like the only thing you really can do is to make your case. It's a popular argument even in comments to our articles about piracy: people download the game as a way to see if it's worth the money. Bordeu doesn't buy it, at least not entirely. "I always believe the legitimate way of proceeding is downloading the demo and/or seeing review scores or watching trailers. But the reality is that many, many people do download pirated games to test them and sometimes they end up purchasing the game later. The best thing we felt we could do is to appeal to these people's conscience instead of trying to stop them—you cannot stop piracy anyways. If you won't be able to police them, why not get some on your side?"

It's not surprising that smaller developers and publishers are more likely to get creative when fighting pirates. They don't have the time or resources to fight any kind of legal battle, and the stakes are much higher. "Small independent game developers usually don't work on multiple titles expecting that one will become a hit and fund their operations," Bordeu explained. "We usually put everything into a single game which after release has to not only recover the investment, but also continue to fund future projects if you wish to grow as a studio."

Bordeu talked about the challenges of getting to a large audience, and happily gave us a copy of the game for review when we asked—expect our thoughts very soon. The game looks like an incredibly odd first-person title, with an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. "People who are playing it are enjoying the weirdness of the game," Bordeu said, noting that the team doesn't have a large marketing budget to get the word out. Talking to the pirates and getting them excited about the game was a good move, from both a sales and PR point of view.

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